Check Out Chelsea Lanier’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Chelsea Lanier.

Hi Chelsea and Camie, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Chelsea- While our retail business is new, my sister, Camie, and I actually grew up around coffee. Our father started his wholesale coffee business, Summit Coffee Company, almost 30 years ago. When we were kids, we loved to go over to the shop and we would watch the big roaster rotate the coffee in the cooling trays and we would use the big burlap coffee sacks for relay races!

Camie and I followed our passions in college. I became a social worker, and she became a registered nurse. Despite taking different paths, though, we ended up working together at the same hospital, and even on the same floor! We felt so blessed to be able to help people together, and what’s more, we learned how well we could work together. After a few years in healthcare, we both felt like we were ready to start a new adventure.

We started out working part-time in our dad’s coffee business to learn the process and see how we liked it. As a young mom with a toddler, the work-life balance from being part-time was huge help, and also, Camie has still been able to work PRN as a nurse to keep up her licensure.

As we learned the nuances of roasting, our passion for coffee grew, but what was just as enjoyable was being able to work together and spend more time together as a family.The idea for Summit Sisters Coffee we owe in part to our dad. Over the years, he would give away or gift his coffee to friends and family who absolutely loved it. Camie and I decided that we needed a way for people to be able to enjoy this delicious coffee in their own homes, and Summit Sisters Coffee was the perfect solution. Summit Sisters is actually a female run division of Summit Coffee Company. We just launched in October 2022, and since then, the business has taken off! Thanks to our dedicated supporters, the company has done so much better than we ever thought possible.

We’ve been able to sell coffee to customers across many states but also offer a local pickup option so that our community can enjoy delicious coffee while saving on shipping costs. We grew up just a few minutes from where our warehouse is located and absolutely love our Old Hickory community. As Nashville natives, we couldn’t be more excited to be a part of all of such a growing city! We are thrilled to partner with and sell our coffee at the following shops: One Shop in Nashville, Salon West Nashville, Aunt Bee’s Farmhouse & Bakery in Granville, TN, and Higher Grounds in Columbia, SC. We are partnering with other shops in the near future – more details coming soon! Launching Summit Sisters has been a journey, but we are so excited to see what the future holds.

For both Camie and myself, we are very extroverted and love meeting new people. We genuinely enjoy spending time with people, and one of our main goals is to always put our customers first. We don’t want to just sell coffee, we want our customers to truly enjoy the coffee experience. I use my passion for people to make real connections for networking and marketing, while Camie uses her attention to detail to ensure every roast is perfectly curated.

My sister and I have been very close for many years. We both know what the other is thinking, sometimes just by looking at each other, but that isn’t to say we aren’t without our differences. That balance, though, is what makes us such a great team. I strive to bring a warm, easy-going and friendly personality to our business, while Camie brings an energetic and adventurous spirit. Through complementing the other’s strengths, we’ve been able to drive the business forward with creativity and trying new ideas. The future is exciting, and we cannot wait to take it on together!

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Camie- Both of us worked in healthcare professions, so starting this new journey meant a complete career change. We had to learn every part of this business from scratch, such as how to navigate social media, marketing, and bookkeeping. Then, we dove headfirst into the most important part: how to roast coffee. Whenever we encountered an obstacle in the business, we would turn to friends, family and business connections to help us navigate them. We never felt alone in starting Summit Sisters because we had such a great network of people to help us tackle it together!

Another hurdle was to learn how we should build a customer base for a primarily online business. We began by sharing our business with our friends and family and expanded outward from there. Chelsea and I started participating in craft fairs, farmer’s markets and other venues, which gave us a way to personally meet fellow coffee lovers. We have made many new friends and made lots of connections while expanding our online customer base.

We recently rebranded Summit Sisters Coffee in order to fine-tune our logo and labels in order to encapsulate what is most important to us. Specifically, our logo has three mountain peaks; the big mountain represents our dad and the two smaller mountains represent us two sisters. The coffee cup is representative of our passion to bring our customers the best possible coffee, from seed to cup, to brew at home. We also added a cute little detail to the steam which is actually two S’s for Summit Sisters.

When starting something new, the hardest part is often making the decision to dive in and do it, even if everything isn’t totally perfect just yet. It’s easy to make excuses for not trying something new, but once you’ve pushed through that first step, the other pieces begin to fall into place!

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Camie- We are a micro-batch family-owned and operated coffee roastery. We get green coffee beans from around the world and roast them to perfection. We have two types of roasters. The traditional drum roaster and an air roaster. Drum roasting uses a process of heating a large drum to spin the coffee around to distribute the heat to each bean, while the air roasting uses precision temperature control and airflow to provide you with the clearest cup of coffee. Unlike traditional roasting methods, this air shoots the bean shaft out of the roaster which creates a smooth, perfectly balanced cup of coffee for our customers. 

We specialize in providing coffee for a level enthusiast. Oftentimes, when someone wants to buy coffee, they can only get single-origin or specialty coffee, but Summit Sisters offers several types of coffee. We have a single origin, blends, Crown Jewels, and flavored coffee. We realize that people like to enjoy their coffee in many different ways and we want to provide an option for everyone. Through our relationship with the wholesale company, we have access to a wide variety of coffee.

Our most popular coffee, Tennessee Whiskey, has flavors of oak, whiskey, butterscotch and caramel. Our favorite Crown Jewel Coffee would have to be Costa Rica Geisha, with pineapple, kiwi, lime and floral tasting notes. We want to offer the best roast possible to our coffee connoisseur customers who will be able to truly appreciate the tasting notes crafted into each cup.

What makes Summit Sisters different from other coffee companies is how fresh our coffee is. As a small business, we have the ability to roast to order. The maximum capacity for our air roaster batches is 3 pounds, so every coffee ordered is made specifically for that person, whereas if you go to a grocery store, you don’t know how long that coffee has been sitting there.

Everything that comes from our company, from the roasted coffee to the labeling on the bags, is done with care by my sister and me. There are not very many female coffee roasters, so we can’t wait to show the world what we can do!

Pricing:

• Flavored Coffee $16.99 for 12 oz
• Single Origin Coffee’s $15.99 for 12 oz
• Coffee Blends are $16.99 for 12 oz
• Crown Jewel Coffee varies in price

Contact Info:

• Website: www.summitsisterscoffee.com
• Instagram: @summitsisterscoffee
• Facebook: @summitsisterscoffee

Image Credits
Lauren Dooley, Logan Dooley, and Jeorgi Thiel